OWS members may no longer be on street corners, but the movement’s vocabulary of economic injustice, previously common only on college campuses, has become more accessible to a wide variety of Americans.

This year, as the disparity between rich and poor continued to grow to levels not seen since 1928, the nation’s new consciousness about the economy allowed income inequality to take hold of the country’s conscience. Indeed, 2013 was the year of thinking and talking about income inequality. As judged by how frequently we search Google, Americans’ curiosity about income inequality has been high since Occupy started in 2011, but recently spiked beyond 2011’s levels — and the conversation extended well beyond the Internet.

While there were some minor policy changes passed that could help lessen that gap — such as many local minimum-wage campaigns; there were many, such as repeated cuts to food stamps and unemployment benefits, that seem to promise to widen the chasm further. But the conversation has begun and if 2013 was a year of public awareness about income inequality, maybe 2014 will be the year something is done about it.

The assaults included a car bomb that went off next to a Christian church in the Doura district of the Iraqi capital after a Christmas service, a police officer confirmed, according to AP. The attack killed at least 26 people and wounded 38 others. Most of the victims were Christians.

Earlier on Wednesday, two bombs exploded simultaneously at an outdoor market in the same area of Doura, killing 11 people and wounding 21 others. The figures were confirmed by a medical official.

When a few canoes carrying a group of Wiyot tribal members to Indian Island cross the choppy waters of Humboldt Bay in March, it will not look as if anything particularly special is happening. The nondescript, flat, marshy 275-acre island sits beneath a bridge upon which traffic whizzes by on busy Route 255. But what will take place will be remarkable: 153 years after Indian Island was the site of a brutal massacre of the Wiyot, it will bear witness to a ceremony of rebirth and testament of survival for a people brought to the brink of extinction.

For three days, beginning March 28, the Wiyot plan to perform a world renewal ceremony on the island. It will be the first time since the massacre that the ceremony — which once stood at the center of the tribe’s cultural life — has been performed, healing a gap of more than a century and a half. For the tribe’s current members, it’s especially meaningful that the ceremony will take place on the very land where so many of their ancestors were killed. ’We need to complete the ceremony of 1860 for the ones who were lost,’ said Ted Hernandez, chairman of the 645-member tribe.

The ceremony will act as a marker on a long and unlikely journey of survival. It is not easy to recover from a massacre, and that year the endured one of the worst ethnic slaughters in U.S. history as they danced and sang at a world renewal ceremony on Indian Island.

A posse of white settlers sneaked through the darkness one night in 1860 and murdered more than 50 Native American women and children, mostly with axes and hatchets. ’Amidst the wailing of mutilated infants,’ The San Francisco Bulletin wrote at the time, ‘the savage blows are given, cutting through bone and brain.’

Deep cuts to the US food stamps programme, designed to keep low-income Americans out of hunger in the aftermath of the economic recession, have forced increasing numbers of families such as theirs to rely on food banks and community organisations to stave off hunger.An expansion of the programme, put in place when the recession was biting deepest, was allowed to expire in November, cutting benefits for an estimated 48 million people, including 22 million children, by an average of 7%. Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed $38bn cuts over 10 years, in their latest version of a long-delayed farm bill that would also require new work requirements and drug tests for food stamp recipients.

…

Even since the November cuts took effect, those involved in emergency food distribution reported higher demand and longer lines, with new clients they had not seen before. The San Antonio Food Bank says donations are up 16% But because of the cuts to Snap the supplies disappear faster. Eric Cooper, the CEO, said: ‘For me, October, November and December is harvest season. Our community is at [its] best. There’s a great spirit of the holidays and giving is at its peak. But when I go into the warehouse, there are a lot of empty shelves. It used to last longer. Demand is outpacing supply.’

The food bank’s 535 partner agencies, food pantries and kitchens across 16 counties in southwest Texas, are ordering more food, Cooper said. ‘They are reporting longer lines and they are seeing people sooner in the month.’

Like me, you are probably reading this in a warm, secure home. I hope you have enough to eat tonight and, if you’re lucky enough to have the day off (or work from home, like me) some family or friends around you. Take this time to recharge if you can — but remember, we have work to do.

Feel free to share your ‘actual news’ links in the comments!

Photo by Beau Considine released under a Creative Commons Share Alike license.

34 Responses to Christmas Antidote: Actual News

“But the conversation has begun and if 2013 was a year of public awareness about income inequality, maybe 2014 will be the year something is done about it.”

By whom? The Democrats? LOL. Won’t happen. They are the 1% every bit as much as the Republicans are. Don’t look for Elizabeth Warren to save us in 2016, either, much less Shrillary Clinton.

“The San Antonio Food Bank says donations are up 16%.”

Good for my birth city. San Antonians aren’t exactly wealthy by and large, but it’s no surprise to me that they are at least trying. There are lots of good people there. The Cleveland Food Bank, of course, is one of the biggest in the country, if not the biggest. And they can barely keep up with demand now. After the SNAP cuts and the denial of unemployment benefits extension, things will get worse.

My home is warm and secure for the moment, until the landlord gets dollar signs and decides to put it on the market, or until he doesn’t pay his property taxes and the sheriff comes. As for a home loan, well, that ain’t happening anytime soon.

So we’ll put on Miracle on 34th Street and eat lasagna. And to all a good night.

Yes I did not mean to imply the average reader is secure — like many I’m comfortable enough tonight but only a paycheck or two from homelessness and poverty, and I don’t have healthcare yet. I’ve spent the last two months doing support for Austin Flood victims and it taught me a lot about how precarious we all are.

Here’s the pumpkin lasagna I made last night at the small Christmas Eve gathering, with a few small modifications.

Unemployment, hunger and poverty are a cancer on society. Yet we ignore that in the most recent grand bargain. And then we go on to approve a six hundred billion dollar defense bill. Why can’t they just say NO until these other programs are passed? Apparently that won’t work.

It’s sad when the Pope has to tell the world how it is. And then our President decides to come out with another speech. I reckon it is time for another speech now. Yeah, speeches, bitches, speeches .

It bothers me a good deal that Obama and his party do nothing concrete to try and help. They won’t even threaten to not pass something like the defense bill that some on the other side might want. If you do nothing and say nothing all you have left is speeches, bitches, speeches.

As an Assyrian American I got into huge arguments online with other Assyrian-Chaldean online groups who were huge supporters of the Iraq invasion.

These naive groups thought that George W was going to create Bet Nahrain and liberate the Nineveh Plain for their nation

I knew better. My uncle would scoff at fellow Assyrians at the Assyrian Hall in Turlock, California. As a youth I heard him say, “Assyrians can’t afford a single F 15 and we’re going to kick the Kurds and Iraqi Arabs out? Not a chance”

I remember when I quit their online group for supporting this folly by saying: “Will the last Assyrian in Iraq please turn out the lights?”

It has been nothing but ethnic cleansing ever since. Especially since so many of them collaborated with the American occupiers

This breaks my heart but am not one bit surprised, Assyrians are being heavily assaulted in the Syrian Panhandle by Obama’s pals Jabhat al Nusra to boot

As the owner of a huge blessed dog I find that comment strange. As someone at the gold club said when Shep barked at them for just being there “It’s a dawg”!!!

Playing cards in a room of about 25 people, I told someone (not too loudly, I thought) that Shep really was sort of trained. And the whole room broke into loud laughter after which someone pointed out that sometimes my partner had to come in and get me after walking Shep, because Shep just refuses to get in the car (His way of extending the walk).

How do I get him in? I indicate to Shep that if he doesn’t move it, his tail might get stepped on. And no, that is NOT dog abuse. Getting this dog to 91 lbs. might be, but he is just an eating machine. Eating and barking.

Sadly (for us) Shep got more gifts at Christmas than us (and not from us, either, from acquaintances who think he is just so cute).

I freely admit my dog’s behavior is sometimes out of line, but apparently loveably so.

Don’t dislike dogs per se, but dislike some of their behavior, which I put on the owners.

Besides the two incidents reported in 16, one of the dogs ate the fruit cake I made last year, and made his way partly into the cookies. When I warned one owner this year, by email, to make sure food was out of reach (closets with doors?) he mocked me.

My bee guy has a black German shepherd. When he comes to check the hives, he calls in advance to let me know so my cat is inside. That dog, Maggie, is a sweetie with humans, and wrt cats Maggie just wants to “kiss” & play with them, so trick is to keep them separate.

When I was in the city, the pet (heh) peeve was retractable leashes. Owner would be on one side of the sidewalk, dog was on the other, coming up from behind I’d have to yell: reel in your dog. Not to mention poop on the sidewalk despite pooper-scooper laws.

Will be sorry to miss both annual review of book salon, with suggestions for coming year, plus replay of weather-aborted salon about Dulles brothers. I’ve been on their case as original sin of post-WWII U.S. foreign policy since I read author (Kinzer’s) book on Overthrow. Doing goose dinner party that date.

To whet appetites, Eric Massa lost his house seat owing to what is reported (wiki) as minor misbehavior, which he disputes. After Massa outed Petreaus for talking about being R prez candidate with Cheney, while Petreaus had Obama as commander. Aftermath: Petreaus shows up as head of hedge fund, courtesy of KKR, Bilderberg attendee. Also interesting insight into how NSA spies on politicians.

Another: Ohio voting machines. What I learned was that they are not manipulated at individual machine level, but when results are aggregated. Bush family connection, plus U.S. trying to sell these to 3d world countries.

Had a parakeet pet when I was little. He (Mac because he was mostly green) too small to hurt anything.

Neighbors have two big dogs, two cats, 4 horses (board two), multiple chickens, who apparently can peck you but haven’t done that yet to my knowledge, are all OK even when small house is full of people.

Reading the comment section reminds me why it is basically useless to write something about the Koch brothers in the comment section with an article about them. This truly is a big deal that they are behind the laws and fines in Arizona. I have written about the Librarian of Congress’ Madison Council–which includes the Kochs–as a corrupting influence. At least the Russian and German media translated my posts on Oligarchs and the underhanded sale of the Waldeemuller Map; even the German Parliament passed a law based on my posts.

Plus my bee hives are far enough away from house not to be dangerous to humans. Honey bees are semi-domesticated, in the sense that they attack only under certain circumstances. Bee guy educated me what those were, like wearing black shirt when getting near hives, because bees think you might be a bear. Maggie (black dog) learned that quickly after bee guy got her and now she keeps safe distance. Also have epi-pen in case.

Curiously, honey bees don’t like banana smell. Once served pina coladas at BBQ, and made sure no one went to see hives carrying a drink.

Political newbie, so not sure what best way to counter their influence. Bless you for your efforts.

Kochs do tie in to Presidential Puppetry book described above. Kochs are prime examples of puppet masters.

To mobilize efforts against such evil, education is necessary first. When I try to describe to less politically aware what the dangers are to democracy are, eye rolls ensue. Education has long way to go.

I even run into resistance when I remark that the workers at Wal-Mart can’t afford to shop there. Many Americans are hard pressed economically and don’t see anyway out other than finding the best bargain.

Your posts date to before my time as an editor at Firedoglake, thanks for the tip I’ll go back and read them.

I think the FDL commenters are more aware than most, but I understand why some people also want to talk about lighter topics from time to time.

I also know I don’t have a lot to add to the analysis in the video or eCAHN’s comments. The Kochs are some of the worst of the rich rulers of our nation, and their malign influence shadows all of our politics the same way the Scientologists disdain for psychology shadows Hollywood’s treatment of the field.

Bribery, blackmail, bullying, blackballing, extortion and eliminating anyone who is against them. That’s what they understand.
Time for a refresher on what products shoppers can look for at the grocery store, when they’re spending all that money they didn’t deserve to get because they aren’t worth it:http://www.anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=585

Just as a phone can be tapped from far away, voting machines — like the touch screens — can be rigged to register a vote for the opposite candidate that the voter thinks he/she is voting for.
I have heard about this first-hand, and perhaps Brad Blog could shed more light.

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